Is the GAA in competition with rugby or not?
There landed a snazzy brochure, a video centred on Liam Neeson’s endorsement of this rugby initiative. The symbolism of an all Ireland approach was not scanted. Minister Frances Fitzgerald remarked: “Rugby is an unique unifier.”
Boons were of arresting kind. Success would deliver nearly half a million visitors to Ireland, with €800m in economic benefit. Longer term boost for tourism speaks for itself.
The centrepiece of this bid is co- operation by the GAA and the IRFU. Twelve GAA stadia have been listed for possible use. Nine would see service during 2023. The two organisations both stand to make tens of millions from their co-operation. Speaking in the Senate, John O’Mahony (former manager of Galway, Leitrim and Mayo) hailed this partnership in the warmest terms.
Amid such hype, Tipperary naturally felt left out. Jackie Cahill TD and Alan Kelly TD deplored Semple Stadium’s absence from favoured venues. If nothing else, their response emphasises this drive as all upside. Who wants to be a Cinderella county for the 2023 Ball?
Part of me wonders, although an Irish World Cup clearly would be a wonderful event. Is a different perspective possible, a voice not so much dissenting as one asking whether the full picture has disappeared? Or does any response beyond blanket enthusiasm mark you down as a ‘backwoods man’, the worst type of ‘fíor Ghael’?
You would hope not. Rational debate should be possible. The roots of this crux lie in the early 2000s, when the country was convulsed (no exaggeration) by the so-called ‘Rule 42 debate’. Back then, querying the logic of hosting rugby and soccer in Croke Park meant being dubbed a bigot. The GAA was browbeaten on the topic by a media campaign aloft on populist guff. Item: the Progressive Democrats felt the same way about competition as Donald Trump does about makeup: as much of it as possible and even in the most surprising places. The PDs held that everybody and everything should be in competition so as to ensure their holy of holies, efficiency.
Mary Harney and colleagues did allow one exception: GAA codes were not in competition with other sports. Therefore Croke Park should be opened up. Is it too cynical to place this stand’s appeal in how well it played throughout the middle class estates of Cork and Dublin and Limerick?
I wondered then and I wonder now. Here is a present crux. By and large, the GAA world agrees the club player receives a sore deal. Henry Shefflin recently published a compelling column about inter-county retirement revealing to him the unfairness of clubmen’s lot. Like so many observers, Shefflin was clear: shortening the intercounty season offers best remedy.
Finishing the two Senior campaigns by mid-August, freeing up space for club competition on good surfaces, could be done. Yet Croke Park is notably slow on this front. The GAA’s top brass, coy enough in this area, do concede they are reluctant to cede autumn to coverage of rugby and soccer.
This approach might be right or wrong, sound or not so sound. Best remedy is a matter for debate. But Croke Park’s position on the inter-county season does acknowledge Gaelic football and hurling compete with rugby for youngsters’ hearts and minds. If so, is there not some contradiction in granting rugby the unprecedented levels of exposure a 2023 World Cup would entail?
Practical implications are likewise significant. Although Tullamore’s O’Connor Park is not among the 12 stadia, local GAA would not be unaffected. Local sports journalist Pat Donegan instances 2015: “Last year, the two senior finals in Offaly coincided with two massive rugby games in the World Cup. If memory serves, the hurling one came the same Sunday as Ireland against France. Then the football one, the Sunday after, clashed with Ireland against Argentina.”
Donegan elaborates: “Those clashes took a clear thousand spectators off each gate. The end result was a shortfall of around €20,000. Senior Final attendance is a big chunk of the Offaly County Board’s annual income.”
He concludes: “If the autumn of 2023 is dominated by rugby, with similar drop-offs in attendance at various finals, will the profits earned by Croke Park filter down the way? You’d hope the issue of compensation wouldn’t be pushed to one side.”
Is any good served by pretending rugby and GAA codes are not in competition? While Croke Park’s left hand admits same in its attitude to intercounty duration, Croke Park’s right hand denies same by facilitating the 2023 bid. Incoherence will bring forth only further incoherence, whatever the rental incomes.
The difficult truths will remain, unattended by logic and ever harder to address.
